Farmer forced to sell donkey to rebuild after Melissa

Williamsfield farmer Jeffery Platt is facing a devastating prospect of parting with his donkey colt in order to buy fertiliser and restart his livelihood.

Platt said he has been forced to put the animal on the market after Hurricane Melissa wiped out more than 3,000 hills of yam on his property.

The 45-year-old farmer said Melissa levelled his entire hillside operation, leaving nothing behind to salvage and no way to earn an income to rebuild.

"Mi farm dem mash up," he told THE STAR, recalling how the floodwaters that settled near his community gradually crept across his land and drowned his young crops.

"Mi stand up inna di middle a di farm and mi feel like mi cya even breathe. All di work weh mi put in just vanish," he said.

With every plot destroyed and his supplies washed away, replanting is now financially out of reach. Platt says he needs 12 bags of fertiliser to restart. The blends commonly used by yam farmers cost between $6,500 and $8,500 per bag -- putting his restart bill close to $100,000.

It's a price he simply cannot pay, and so he has turned to the only option he believes he has left.

"Instead a wake and beg people, mi decide fi sell the cubby and buy fertiliser because mi nuh have nobody fi give me anything," he shared.

He has set a price of $110,000 for the young animal, but even that lifeline has been slow to take shape.

"One and two people call enuh... about three somebody call me and seh dem a go call me back, but nobody nuh really look like dem wah no donkey," he said.

Letting go of the cubby has been an emotional blow.

"A di cubby mi raise from him born... mi never plan fi sell him. But mi reach a point weh mi haffi choose between di animal and mi whole livelihood."

Meanwhile, his losses extend beyond the farm. Platt said Melissa, the Category 5 storm which struck Jamaica on October 28, not only damaged his crops but also his house and destroyed his small shop.

"It tek off couple zinc offa me house eno, and me have one shop... it mash up completely," he said.

Some days, the weight of the disaster feels like too much to carry.

"A nuh beg mi like beg, mi just wah a chance fi start back. Mi caah plant hope, mi haffi plant yam."

With everything from his crops to his roof torn apart, selling the young donkey -- the only cubby he owns -- has become his last attempt to rebuild what the hurricane swept away.

"Mi just want the chance fi start again. Once mi get di fertilizer, mi know me can bring back the farm, but me affi sell di donkey first," he said.